A memorial service for Missouri’s state auditor will be held today in Clayton.
Tom Schweich is being remembered as a dedicated and focused public servant. Representative Denny Hoskins (R-Warrensburg) got to know Schweich during the campaign for state auditor in 2010, which Schweich won. The two became friends and Hoskins says he got to know a man who in spite of his impressive education and resume, was very genuine and humble.
“Although he had an education background at Yale and Harvard that some of us, many of us like myself, would only dream about having, he didn’t rub that in your face. He was just a common guy and when you sat down and talked to him, he always had a smile on his face,” Hoskins told Missourinet.
Hoskins said Schweich also loved his job.
“He loved looking for fraud, waste and abuse in state government. His audits, as you can tell recently from the audit of the St. Joseph Public School District, were some of the toughest around,” said Hoskins.
Hoskins said Schweich’s work and political life did not come at the expense of his family. Schweich had two children with is wife, Kathy.
“He was very much a dedicated family man. I know he loved his wife and children and definitely would make time for them even as the demands of his work schedule would take him elsewhere,” Hoskins said.
“My thoughts and prayers just go out with them. I can’t imagine what they’re going through. I know it’s the most difficult times and days and hours that they’ve experienced, said Hoskins of Schweich’s family.
Hoskins declined to comment on the information released by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, that Schweich had reached out to reporters to talk about his belief that newly elected state Republican Party Chairman John Hancock had said Schweich was Jewish in an effort to undermine Schweich’s campaign for Governor. Nor did Hoskins want to discuss what ramifications for the state GOP might be.
He and more than 200 other lawmakers, elected officials, staff, and Capitol reporters gathered in the House chamber last week in a prayer service for Schweich and his family.
Clayton police are continuing to investigating Schweich’s death as an apparent suicide.
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